“Invariably, the worst abuses by the Federal judiciary arose from the expansive interpretation of the 14th amendment.”
I agree fully. I have read the amendment many times and still have missed the “right to privacy” clause that the court found in Roe v. Wade.
This has happened many times. I am till looking in my copy of the Constitution where it says that a there is no Constitutional path for a slave to become a citizen of the United State. As the Taney Court ruled in Scott v. Sanford.
They only way to correct a bad ruling from the Court of Black Robed deities is to Amend the Constitution. Which in the case of the 14th amendment was the objective in getting around Scott v. Sanford. But the 14th would have been just as effective in its aim, if they had just written the first couple of line and left it at that. Still would have a problem with birthright citizenship. that could have been solved by putting a time limit on the Amendment. The authors went overboard and added a lot of stuff to punish ex-Confederates, etc. You already know that.
I Strongly agree with this notion. The first part addressed the primary concern. The second part is where all the abuse by the Federal judiciary crept in.
Now of course I often argue that the 13th, 14th and 15th were not legitimately passed by the valid constitutional process, because when you are holding threats over someone's head, you cannot say they are voluntarily doing what you are compelling them to do, and the constitutional process was not meant to be circumvented by threats and duress.
But it is done, and there is no redo on passing it properly.
Still would have a problem with birthright citizenship. that could have been solved by putting a time limit on the Amendment.
The first part of the 14th was patterned after the Civil Rights act of 1866, and they would have been better off if they had kept that language.
"All persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States"
The initial draft of the 14th amendment was much better, but I think it was Senator Trumbull that caused them to get rid of the clear and easily understood language, and replace it with the ambiguity we have now. He said he had learned there was a thing called "local allegiance" which was a condition which occurs when citizens are in foreign lands, and he thought it would be misconstrued, so they got rid of the "subject to a foreign power" clause.
The authors went overboard and added a lot of stuff to punish ex-Confederates, etc. You already know that.
Yup. They had the power, and they wanted to twist the knife as much as they could get away with. Some today are still trying to punish them.